


Promises

by goddessofcheese



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 13:27:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15641676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessofcheese/pseuds/goddessofcheese
Summary: Both humans looked down at the small shape on the ground peeking out of the shredded mark, the light of its eye static and hurt, but alive.And Boston remembered what she’d said to that Titan on the rooftop. What she had promised him.And then she knew what she had to do.(inspired by those sad as heck Solstice armor tabs aww yes)





	Promises

_The European Dead Zone_

_(6 days after the Red War began)_

The rule was like this: You aren’t forbidden from going outside the Walls… but if you do you’re on your own. Adults told bedtime tales to their kids of children who wandered too far beyond the sight of their immortal protectors and dealt with all sorts of scary things before coming back to the safety of their district. It was just meant to scare them a little to keep them on the straight and narrow, but it always had a happy ending.

Boston thought about those stories as she peered out over the empty landscape ahead of them, trailing just behind her family. All of them scurried and darted between the rocks and trees like mice, avoiding any possible sighting by a passing cabal thresher. There were six of them all together, the youngest only a few months old and blissfully unaware that the city of his birth was burning. The flight to the EDZ had been long and quiet in an old ship missing its owner, with just enough power left to get them within a few miles of the place that the radio had told them would be safe. Now it was just the long and grueling walk to this 'Farm'.

In her right hand, Boston carried a hammer stolen from her workplace. Well, not exactly stolen, in her mind; it wasn’t her fault she’d been working overtime when the Cabal had attacked. She hadn’t even realized she took it until she got back to her building. In any case, the heavy weight swinging in her grip made her feel a little better.

In the other hand, a Ghost in a battered red shell was hidden in a ball of fabric. It had stirred little and been silent since they had left.

The group made it a few miles away from the ship when they first heard the howl from behind them. All of them froze, sharing looks of rising concern, but it faded into the air. They tried to ignore it and keep marching, if maybe a little more urgently. A wolf, maybe. But as it grew closer and it became sharper and higher, and a flash of red flared between the pine trees behind them, her mother screamed and they all began to run.

The warbeasts followed, the call of their pack master not far behind.

Boston’s lungs burned as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Her skin burned with every bush and branch she ran through. Her heart burned with terror and anger and then horror as her dad collapsed not far ahead of her. She ran over to him, the Ghost and hammer tossed aside as she fell to her knees to to drag him up to his feet. He was gasping for breath as he looked up at her.

“I can’t do this.”

“You have to.” Boston looked up and swore she could see a ship fly overhead, heading where they needed to go. They were _so close_. “Get up!”

But he just shook his head. “I’m just gonna hold you back like this, I can’t—I can’t keep up. Just go.”

“I’m not doing that and you know I—"

“G-Guardian?”

Both humans looked down at the small shape on the ground peeking out of the shredded mark, the light of its eye static and hurt, but alive.

And Boston remembered what she’d said to that Titan on the rooftop. What she had promised him.

And then she knew what she had to do.

Boston picked up and pressed the Ghost into her dad’s hands, pushing it close to him. “Keep that little guy safe, okay?”

And before he could react she got back to her feet, grabbed her hammer in one hand and tucked the mark into her belt, and began to run in the opposite direction.

Everything began to blur. She felt the burning again of her breathing and the branches and her own beating heart.

But when the warbeasts and their master came into view, all she really felt was the hammer.

* * *

_The Last City_

_(1 day after the Red War began)_

Not to boast, but--

Well actually, absolutely to boast, but Sebastian’s ship was one of the best in the City, if not the entire system.

He had been customizing the small but sleek vessel for years, spending all his glimmer and free time on upgrading it. Together, they had gained a deserved reputation for one of the fastest pilots in the system, serving as a scout among enemy lines and ferrying back valuable supplies. He got the praise, but he always credited his ship for bringing him home.

And now it lay on the rooftop of an apartment building, laying to one side like a bird with clipped wings. The fire had been put out but the damage from the Cabal missile had done its job pretty well.

“If I move this cord here… And attach this…” He grumbled as he worked. “Traveler’s ass, this board’s fried. It’ll fly but I don’t know how far.”

His little red-shelled Ghost, normally so talkative and chipper, was tucked into the crook of his elbow like a baby bird. His light was just a flicker and gave no response. Sebastian tried not to think about that too hard. Or about the growing, damp discomfort beneath his chestplate. Yes... the missile had done its job well.

The door to the stairs banged open. He reached for his rifle before realizing what was there: a group of six humans, from old to infant, all of them looking about as panicked as rabbits. A young woman carrying a hammer stepped out and looked from him to the ship and back., their eyes meeting, asking the question before she said it.

"Can... can it fly?" 

Sebastian looked down at his Ghost and pulled him away from his side. The side of his shell was a dark wet crimson.

 Ah.

 "Yeah. Get in."

 The family could barely fit, packed into the ship's usually roomy cockpit like sardines. But by the end, only he and the woman who’d approached him were left, sharing a view of a nearby cabal unit. It didn’t escape his notice that they were heading straight for their block.

“What’s your name?”

She looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. “You really wanna know that now?”

“Guardians are weird like that.”

Laughing a little, she tucked some of her wild hair behind an ear. “Boston.”

“You tough, Boston?”

Her eyes glanced over to her family as an older woman bounced a fussy infant on her knee. “When I gotta be.”

Sebastian nodded, believing it. “Then I need you to do me a favor,” he replied as he painfully began to remove his titan’s mark.

He asked her to make him a promise as he pressed his Ghost into her hands, wrapped up in the burned and shredded remains of his mark. A promise to look out for his little guy, and doubly so for that family of hers. She refused to take him at first. After all, a Guardian needs his Ghost. It was only when she noticed the small puddle pooling under his feet and the way he leaned on the railing that she quietly took the Ghost into her hands.

“Does, uh, he have a name?”

Sebastian laughed, despite the pain. That was not the question he’d been anticipating.

“You know, it never really came up. We… we haven’t been together very long. But he’s dear to me.” He smiled softly in memory. “He told me once that… that he made the right choice. Now I’m returning the favor.”

And then Sebastian watched the ship rise up and kept watching until they flew out of his sight and his eyes began to blur. With a thud, he fell back against the railing, facing the door to the stairway. There were voices coming up them now, alien and rough. How many, he wondered, before deciding that didn’t quite matter.

The ship had gotten away.

And his rifle still had four bullets left. 

* * *

 

_The European Dead Zone_

_(17 days after the Red War began)_

 “You sure this is the place?”

Artemis-9 looked a bit unsure as she looked around at all the pine trees and craggy rocks with disinterest. Cities and ruins were more her style, despite the usual stereotypes about Hunters, so Ghost wasn’t entirely surprised that she wasn’t enjoying this little nature hike. Carmilla looked more at home, moving over the terrain with ease, and this didn’t surprise him either; after all the warlock had lived in this zone in her self-exile for decades now.

But his attention on them was more of a distraction than a real focus. Something else was pulling at him. It was hard to describe to anyone that wasn’t a Ghost, and even then it was hard to describe… the sensation of knowing where something was, but not exactly where, or when, or what. Only that it kept him going forward past all obstacles and that he knew deep down in his metal core that he would be incomplete without it.

He knew this feeling. He had felt it once before and it was not something he’d ever expected to feel again.

But… things changed.

Floating along, he began to scan the area, searching, searching, searching. But it wasn't until he passed over the hill and through some dense trees that he found something quite startling in the clearing before him: a dead human. The body was in plain sight, face up to the sky, with several war beasts around it. A bloody hammer was still clutched tight in one fist. She had not gone down without a fight it seemed. Ghost was saddened but impressed; it was quite the picture of defiance against all odds.

Artemis-9 definitely felt something else though as she backed off and muttered, “Yuck!”

Carmilla gave her a sharp nudge with her elbow and huffed reproachfully before looking back at Ghost. “I will transmat the remains back to our ship. She may still have kin.”

He paused, looking from her to the terrible scene before them. This sad site of destruction, just another life lost to the Cabal.

And then he saw the mark tucked into her belt.

“No,” he whispered as the Light given back to him began to swirl around his shell. “This is what I’m looking for.”

There was a flash that blinded them all. But when it dissipated and the world appeared again, there was someone new with them. Standing on two uneasy feet, but with eyes blazing. And in her fist curled a heavy hammer, not cold and metal but made of Sol itself and burning just as hot. The heat around her felt raw and fresh, like the fire of a newly stoked furnace, but Ghost flew in closer as her eyes met him.

No words passed between them, but there was an understanding as he flew into her flame, resting in her outstretched hand, and felt whole again for the first time in weeks. 

“Eyes up, Guardian.”


End file.
